To the Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia
Nikol Pashinyan
On the legal integration of relocants and new protected statuses
Dear Mr. Prime Minister!
We appeal to you with a proposal to consider a package of solutions aimed at a deeper and more controlled integration into the Armenian society of those people who already live in the Republic of Armenia, work here, open companies, invest in the economy and associate their long-term life prospects with Armenia.
In recent years, a noticeable community of highly qualified specialists, entrepreneurs, doctors, engineers, teachers, researchers and representatives of the digital economy has formed in Armenia, arriving from different countries in search of a safe, predictable and legal environment for living and working. These people rent and purchase housing, transfer teams, create jobs, open new lines of business, use local services and expand professional connections in Armenia.
At the same time, the lack of an accelerated and legally defined route to a sustainable protected status hinders the completeness of their integration. There remains a sense of legal temporariness that makes it difficult to transfer families, expand businesses, localize income and tax bases, make long-term investments, and ultimately establish themselves in Armenian jurisdiction. Psychologically, this is expressed in a constant feeling of instability even among those who have actually already made a choice in favor of life in Armenia.
That is why two legal instruments are proposed: temporary citizenship of the Republic of Armenia for a period of three years for persons who have lived in the country for at least six months, and citizenship of the Republic of Armenia as an independent status, as close as possible to citizenship in terms of the scope of everyday rights. These decisions can be considered by the state as two independent options with a choice of one, or as parallel complementary mechanisms of legal integration.
For the Republic of Armenia, this decision is of direct state benefit. It strengthens the tax base, accelerates business localization, increases employment, stimulates investment, strengthens the healthcare, high-tech sector, education and service economy, and cements Armenia's reputation as a modern state capable of turning human capital into long-term development.
We are turning to you specifically, since a significant part of the relocant community consciously linked their decision to live in Armenia with the state and political vector that is being carried out under your leadership. For us, the course towards a rule of law, institutional predictability, respect for human dignity, openness to the world, modernization and peaceful development of the country are fundamentally important. We perceive ourselves as people who are ready to strengthen exactly this course of Armenia through their work, entrepreneurial initiative, professional activities and future civil integration.
We ask you to support the launch of an interdepartmental discussion of the package, entrust the preparation of an official Armenian version of the projects and consider the issue of sequential promotion of one of the proposed statuses or their parallel introduction. We believe that this step will be both humane, beneficial to the state and politically consonant with the path of development that is today associated with modern Armenia.
Sincerely,
initiators and supporters of the reform package.